EK COSMONAUT #3 SHIPPING

The kits of the first figure in the EK Cosmonaut Series are being shipped out this week by Industria Mechanika. Thanks to everyone that bought one. They still have some in stock, so if you are interested in picking one up, head over to the IMech shop here.

I've previously posted pics of the master sculpt, but here is a first look at the bases. Each figure has it's own unique, etched, clear acrylic base. A 4th, "title base" that the other 3 bases can be set around for display purposes will be available to those that purchase all 3 figures.

The next figure in the series will be available in Feb. 2015 I believe, with the third following sometime in the spring.

If you think you are interested in getting all 3 kits, you better pick this one up now!

Thanks again to Gene and Industria Mechanika.

AIRHOLE AVIATOR REDUX

A few years back I created a line of flight mask graphics for leading ski/snowboard facemask producer Airhole. This line of masks, titled the "Aviator Series", was only released in the 2010/2011 season and quickly sold out. Over the last few years I have received numerous emails from people looking for these facemasks. Well I'm happy to say that a new edition of one of the masks from the Aviator Series has been reproduced for Airhole's 2015 collection. So if you missed them before, here is a chance to get your hands on one!

The graphic is an updated version of one the pieces the from the original Aviator Series, the American MBU-20 flight mask. The original versions (2 American and 1 Russian flight mask) were faithful recreations of the actual flight masks, using the the subdued colours of the rubber, plastic and metal construction found on the actual masks. But on this new version, to change things up and to give the graphic a little more "pop", the inner shell of the mask was painted a bold gold/yellow colour.

If you are interested, get one before they are gone again….I don't think that there will be a third run! Go to the Airhole site to find the dealer nearest to you. 

Thanks to Max and the guys at Airhole.

ADVANCED PHOTOSHOP INTERVIEW

I have a 5 page spread in the latest issue of Advanced Photoshop Magazine (#127). The article is a "Portfolio Interview" and features a mix of personal work from my Entartete Kunst Series and a handful of freelance illustration pieces. The accompanying interview covers topics from how I got into concept art to the publication of my art book, Born In Concrete: The EK Series. 

Unfortunately, even though my job as a concept artist is central to the interview/feature (titled "Masterful Concepts"), the article is almost completely devoid of my concept work. It is next to impossible to obtain image publishing permissions from big companies like Nintendo, Microsoft, Sega, etc., so only one character design concept illustration is included in the whole piece. That being said, the feature turned out well (Even though for some reason they classify me as an animator, and say that I work in the film industry?), and hopefully gives insight into my work, inspirations, etc.

This issue also features great work by Paul Scott Canavan, Jedd Chevrier and a host of others.

Check it out at Advanced Photoshop.uk

Big thanks to Anna-lisa Saywell and April Madden at Advanced Photoshop for the interest and the opportunity.

TINY REALMS RELEASE

Tiny Realms, a playful combat strategy game I did some illustration work for, has been officially released globally for IOS platforms, and is available on the Apple App Store.

As I mentioned in previous posts, Tiny Realms is a casual combat strategy game developed by local Victoria, B.C. developer Tiny Mob Games. I'm not much of a gamer, but I find this game to be pretty fun, and it has a couple unique features that set it apart from other casual combat strategy games out there. First, it has individual unit control, which allows the user to have a more involved role in combat, as opposed to the standard "place and pray" model of most other similar games. The game also features a mode called "Battlegrounds" which allows users to participate in large faction wide battles for control of larger sections of the world map.

Give a Tiny Realms a try here at the App Store……it's free!

In case you aren't an Apple user, I believe Android and Facebook versions of the game are coming in the near future. 

Thanks to Jamie and Paul over at Tiny Mobs Games, and check out the latest work from Tiny Mob's Mike Deas!

EK COSMONAUT #3 RESIN MODEL PREORDER

The first model in the three figure "EK Cosmonaut Series" is now available for preorder from Industria Mechanika. Visit the Industria Mechanika shop here,  for more info. or if you want to order one up!

Modeled by the talented Gene Campbell, this figure is of the same quality and features the same attention to detail as the Dystopic kit, but is slightly smaller at 1/8th scale, so it will have a smaller footprint and a smaller price tag!

Here are a few shots of the master sculpt, printed from Gene's original by Des at Ownage:

The next two figures in this series will be released sequentially starting early next year.

Industria Mechanika is offering a small discount on preorders made in the next two weeks so if you are interested in picking one of these kits up now is the time. Visit the IMech shop here.

Thanks to Gene, Des and Michael for creating another great kit!

COLOURED CG - EK SERIES BOOK FEATURE

Art and entertainment industry site Coloured CG has a feature of my book Born In Concrete: The EK Series. The article is full of page samples and a video flip-through of the book. You can check it out here.

Thanks to George C. Antohi and Coloured CG.

LAYERPAINT INTERVIEW

An interview I did for a feature on my work in 2D Artist magazine a few months ago has been re-published by layerpaint.com. So if you missed it, or didn't pick up a copy of the magazine, you can check out the interview here.

Thanks again to Jess Serjent-Tipping, and 3D Total.

EK COSMONAUT SERIES SNEEK PEEK 2

Here is a first look at the printed master sculpt for the first figure in the upcoming 3 figure EK Cosmonaut Series. Modeled by Gene Campbell, with printing and model breakout by Desmoda at Ownage, this 1/8th scale resin model kit will be released by Industria Mechanika in the fall.

This release will be followed by 2 more figures from the same original EK piece "Model".

I'll post again when the kit is available for pre-order.

Thanks to Gene, Des, and Michael for all their awesome work!

TINY REALMS pt. 3

Here are few more pieces I did for Tiny Realms, a casual, cartoony real time strategy game created by local Victoria, BC based Tiny Mob Games. These are some of the character class portrait images I did for promotional and in-game use.

Tiny Realms has had a soft launch in Canada on iPhone and iPad, and can be downloaded by users in that region here. After a summer of tweaking and gathering and integrating feedback, Tiny Realms will have a full release in the fall. 

More info at:

tinyrealmsgame.com

tinymobgames.com

Thanks to Jamie and Paul at Tiny Mob!

EK COSMONAUT SERIES SNEEK PEEK

Here is small look at the first release of several of upcoming model kits based on my work and produced by Industria Mechanika. The series, titled the "EK Cosmonaut Series", features 3 figures from an older piece of mine called "Model". The master sculpts were created by the talented Gene Campbell (the same modeller that sculpted the Dystopic kit) and they are amazingly accurate and detailed.

Production again is by Industria Mechanika, so the quality level will be high, and Gene's amazing sculpts will be faithfully recreated in resin. This time around the the models are going to produced at 1/8th scale, so the price point and shipping costs will be lower than the Dystopic kit. We are looking at a fall release for this first figure, then the next two kits will be released in sequence after that. 

And for those that are still looking for Dystopic kits, they are currently sold out, but a 3rd run is on the way.

I'll keep you posted on dates and details.

Thanks to Michael, Des, and Gene for all their hard work!

COLORED CG

There is a small feature on my work over at visual art site Colored CG. Check it out here.

This is relatively new site, but there are some great artists featured on there, as well as studios, schools, books, etc., so it is worth taking a look.

Thanks to George at Colored CG.

ART STATION

I finally found some time to add some of my EK pieces to my Art Station account. You can check it out here: artstation.com/artist/Derek_Stenning

Since the sudden demise of CGHUB earlier this year, Art Station seems to be shaping up as the premier social community/portfolio site for entertainment artists. It is well worth a browse, as it is full of amazing work by from a host of incredible artists from across the entertainment industry. Take a look at: artstation.com

TINY REALMS pt. 2

Here are a few character promotional images I created for Tiny Mob Games upcoming free-to-play mobile real time strategy game Tiny Realms.

As mentioned in the last post the visual style of Tiny Realms is quite playful, utilizing exaggerated proportions, a "cartoony"sensibility, and iconic fantasy design motifs. It can be a fun style to play around with. As promotional pieces I was painting these up using character designs created by Mike Deas and Paul Dowd over at Tiny Mob.

Several character/unit types from three playable factions: Human, Dwarf and Tegu, which will be available in the initial release of the game, are featured in these promotional pieces. 

Finally here are couple character types from a fourth faction of Orcs, that is also present in the game as an adversarial group. I believe there are plans to make this a playable faction in the future.

Tiny Mod are launching a limited release of Tiny Realms later this month. A wider release will follow sometime after that, probably in the fall. For more info. on Tiny Realms check out the sites:

tinyrealmsgame.com

tinymobgames.com

Thanks to the guys at Tiny Mob!

TINY REALMS

Here are a few pieces I created for an up coming free-to-play mobile/tablet game called Tiny Realms. Produced by Tiny Mob Games, Tiny Realms is a fantasy based real time strategy game that is scheduled to be released later this spring.

Designed for the "mid-core" market, Tiny Realms is a casual game and the visual style is very playful. These images were done on a pretty tight schedule, but it was fun to have the chance to work on something this cartoony again. Besides the game logo, these images were created to be used in the intro sequence of Tiny Realms and had to be illustrated in layers so they could be animated. Pans, shifting layers to add parallax and depth, subtle effects, etc. were added to the images for the intro.

Thanks to Jamie Toghill, Paul Dowd and Mike Deas (who is handling most of the concept design for this project) at Tiny Mob for the direction, feedback, and for being a pleasure to work with.

Tiny Realms will be released later in Spring 2014, first on iPhone and iPad, but then I believe it will be coming out on Android, Facebook, etc. soon after that. For more info. check it out at:

tinyrealmsgame.com

tinymobgames.com

THE COLLECTIVE PODCAST

I recently had a chat with Ash Thorp on his internet show "The Collective". Ash is a talented designer/illustrator/motion graphics artist in the film industry and he hosts a weekly podcast dedicated to  having conversations with entertainment industry professionals. The show is very casual, being more of a free form conversation as opposed to an interview. During the course of the show we hit upon many different subjects including my book, work/life balance, self reflection and much more, so if you are interested you can check it out here: The Collective, ep.46 - Derek Stenning

Ash also has piles of other episodes of The Collective on his SoundCloud site, featuring amazing artists including Scott Robertson, Anthony Jones, Jeff Simpson, and Ryan Hawkins just to name a few. Visit The Collective and take a look.

Thanks to Ash Thorp for having me on!

TINY MOB GAMES

Here is an promotional illustration I did recently for Tiny Mob Games. Tiny Mob are a small, but growing game developer located in Victoria BC,  that focus on creating casual/mobile/social games for the "mid-core" market. You can check them out at : tinymobgames.com

Tiny Mob are currently finishing up their first title and they are planning on launching it later this spring. I had the chance to contribute to that project so I'll post some of that work once the project has been announced.

Thanks to Paul and Jamie at Tiny Mob.

FANTASY+ 5

Some pieces from my Entartete Kunst series have been featured in the latest, and 5th edition of the Fantasy+ art book. A small interview is also included along with my work. 

This is a great book, full of amazing work by artists from all over the world. Other artists featured include Matt Gaser, Tran Nguyen, Dennis Brown, Yu Donglu, Justin Hernandez, and many more I should mention, but I won't list them all here! 

Thanks to Vincent Zhao for asking me to be part of this book.

Fantasy+ 5 - The World's Most Imaginative Artworks is published by CYPI Press and is out now so go pick one up.
Cover art by Kerem Beyit.